Ignorant NPR fans scoff at opera and rap

If listening to Luciano Pavarotti is just as irritating to you as sitting through a Lil Wayne CD, you're not alone. NPR flexed its social-media muscle to determine its readers' "musical blind spots" (bands or genres ignored by choice or neglect), and "rap" and "opera" cropped up as the most maligned. One reader compared opera to listening to "tortured cats," while another scoffed at rap as "meaningless drivel."

Although the two styles may appear to be artistic antitheses, common threads that might tie gansta grandstanding to that tearjerker aria include listener obsessiveness, "complicated cast lists," and often-complex jargon. See, snobs who hang out at the Met aren't so different from Kanye West fans after all ... we smell killer mashup.